This week is Oracle OpenWorld 2011. Yesterday afternoon I gave my session on incorporating Oracle Application Express within the Oracle SOA Suite. Because of the large amount of questions I got to publish my presentation online, here it is.

When looking at Oracle Application Express we learn that we can use it perfectly for generating User Interfaces on top of datasources. These sources don’t necessarily have to be inside the database. Since APEX 4.0 there are great possibilities to consume web services in a APEX environment, when we use these as our datasources (and even as our Business Logic layer) we can incorporate the power of APEX within the Oracle SOA Suite.

In the presentation I show two great examples on how you can use this in real live. Extending functionality of both Oracle E-Business Suite and Oracle CRM On Demand using the SOA Suite and Application Express. There are a lot more examples to think of.

For coming Oracle OpenWorld, from 2 till 6 October this year, my paper on Oracle Application Express within the Oracle SOA Suite was selected. Two hot Oracle-topics combined into a one hour power session on how to work effectively with two technologies that somewhat collide with each other. But it isn’t such a strange topic, I’ve been talking about it for quite a while now.

When taking an abstract look at Oracle APEX, we see a technology that uses the Oracle Database to generate user interfaces on top of data in a fast manner. It doesn’t really care what the source of the data is. Tables in the database itself, or web services. Using this ‘clean’ look on the technology it is quite possible to combine the powerful features of APEX with the essentials for Service Oriented Architecture embedded in the Oracle SOA Suite.

There are three basic approaches to this. First is using APEX merely as a way to show content that is offered by a web service. Second is building APEX applications on top of the Oracle Database as if we where using Oracle ADF’s Business Components. Simply build screens on top of a database. Use SOA components for everything else. Third is a wider approach, combining method one and two into something completely different. A completely clean web application build using Oracle Application Express that calls and receives answers from web services and BPEL processes.

It is as simple as that. (There is some more to it, but I will tell you about that during oow11…)

Are there any specific parts that you would like to hear about during this session? Some difficulties you want us to tackle? Tell me in the comments! It’s time to build up an awesome session!

A week ago I received a new Oracle APEX book from Packt Publishing with the question to review it and tell the world about the book. The Oracle APEX 4.0 Cookbook is just released and written by Marcel van der Plas and Michel van Zoest, both (ex-)colleagues of me. Because of their extended insight knowledge of Oracle Application Express and projects done with the tool I do think they are the right couple of people to write this book.

The book has become a very interesting distillation of APEX best-practices and adds real value to any Oracle Application Express project. Both for beginners as well as experienced developers. I think this isn’t something you can do easily, but the boys did it.

The book gives inside knowledge to the reader broken down in the form of recipes. And it truly are bites on a platter (hapklare brokken, for the Dutch among us). And it works. The recipes are simple, jet effective, pieces of information. It basically works as an off-line wiki: no more extensive and hard to understand theoretical articles, but small and understanding portions. Finger Food.

This approach is very effective. We no longer need to google our answers and browse tons of articles before we find a solution, but it is served to us. It has cost me, and other developers with me, years of trial and error before we got the knowledge that is combined in this book.

But now the book itself.

The Oracle APEX 4.0 Cookbook covers both the basics as the ‘real thing’. It is set up as a ‘how to’ step by step guide that takes us into the world of Application Express. Beginning with the basic build of an application. For the sake of it, I will not go into that further.

The book gets really interesting in the second part. This is where the years of experience of the authors kicks in. Finally a simple book that tells us what to do, the good way. Themes and Templates get dissected so we actually can understand them and tweak them the way we want to. The chapter about Extending APEX works around examples using JavaScript, AJAX and JavaScript Libraries and it’s put up in a way so we can easily understand what the writer is doing and not only copy the example, but actually (for example) extend APEX with our won JavaScript Library.

In my personal opinion, chapter 10, ‘APEX Environment’, is the most interesting part and discusses an aspect of APEX implementation that is too often undermined. The APEX architecture. Both the development architecture (subscriptions, debugging and version control) and the production architecture (three tier infrastructure, Apache proxy and APEX Listener). This chapter tells us how an APEX application is best developed and deployed.

The Oracle APEX 4.0 Cookbook is available at Packt Publishing.

Two large new releases by the Oracle Corporation that I’ve written about the last few days, Oracle Application Express 4.0 and Oracle BPM Suite 11g, got me thinking. The one focused at delivering Web 2.0 interfaces in an extremely short amount of time, the other on combining static business processes with Enterprise 2.0 capabilities. What will happen when we combine the two?

Oracle Application Express came a long way from simply developing Database applications. APEX version 4.0 gives us a wide variety of additional feature in order to really combine the fast delivery of applications within a Service Oriented Architecture, SOA. Building an APEX application on top of web services isn’t new (we’ve done it before), but with APEX 4.0 it just gets simpler. REST assured.

This means that the days that APEX will only run on data that’s inside the database are really over. Of course, this is still (and will be) the main implementation of the tool. But we don’t have to anymore. Web services will give us the possibility to combine data from different sources and finally give end users a real interface on their business.

Looking at the power of Oracle’s BPM Suite 11g, we can also model these web services according to the business process that it will support. The combination of the two would mean that we can give end users a personalized web interface on their own business processes. The BPM Suite (read: BPEL and OSB) will provide the APEX application with relevant data and authorization on that data.

Think about it: a universal interface for the business, changed and developed in short iterations, that provide access to data based on the role of the user. Managers that get insight from the progress of certain processes while, in the same application, the sales manager uses data from his sales management application and CRM. Think about it.

Combining the two Oracle product will give us a much appreciated combination of complete application integration, modeled business processes and interactive and intuitive web interfaces. What other large possibilities would you see?

Yesterday was a great day: Oracle Application Express 4.0 got released. But not a great night. At least, if you measure nights in amount of sleep. The new Oracle software is so impressive and extensive I wanted to play with it all night. And why?

Because I fell in love with it all over again. Some of the new features in the new release of Oracle Application Express are so well formed they really are a lot of fun to play with. The developers’ interface is very well rewritten and gives the developer a lot more ‘sense’ to what he is doing. This makes developing in APEX even more fun than it already does. I’m really looking forward to be doing my first extensive development project in Application Express to get a feel of what this Team Development is really about.

The new templates in Oracle Application Express are the bomb. They offer much more capabilities to the end user than it did before and, in combination with Dynamic Actions, we really can develop something that has the end user in it’s main focus. User Experience entered the world of Oracle Application Express big time.

Looking at the new software I really do believe that Oracle Application Express got a whole new focus. Where in the first years the main focus was on Access migration and simple departmental database applications, we finally evolved to a full grown Rapid Web 2.0 Development Platform.

Where is the main focus shift in Oracle Application Express 4.0 according to you? And are you as much in love with it as I am?

Since some years the Rapid Application Development platform of Oracle, Oracle Application Express, has gained more and more fans around the globe. I like it, and so do many others. Since today the new main release is available on the Oracle Technology Network for download.

Mike Hichwa, vice president of Software Development at Oracle, calls it the most significant release yet as it adds more features than before and it pushes the platform far further than previous releases. And it does. APEX 4.0 really kicks the functionality and therefore business value to the next level.

Web 2.0 is the main focus on this release. Offering various improvements for both developer as well as business users. Dynamic actions are the real deal. Offering end users great desktop-like functionality without the hassle of developing complex JavaScript and AJAX. This means that we can deliver more functionality to the end user within a shorter amount of time.

Where the 2008 3.1 release of Oracle Application Express offered the great new functionality of Interactive Reports to us, creating a way where end users could consolidate and order information themselves, End User Computing takes a quantum leap in APEX 4.0 with the new ‘Websheets’ functionality. Websheets offer end users a web environment where they can adjust, create and read data within a group of people, with no development needed.

End users now can really become part of the development process themselves. More examples will come to you in the next couple of days. If you haven’t already: download APEX 4.0 from the Oracle Technology Network now.

Alright, APEX has been marketed as the Access killer. This, of course, is not entirely true. When we take a look at some real live implications of Oracle’s Application Express, it is put into action for developing new applications, within an Oracle environment. Not for killing Access within an organization. APEX can be put into action when we take a look at other applications that are developed outside of the grasp of the IT department. But then we need to take more into account than just the technology.

Some organizations have a large problem: they have some departments that develop their own applications. In the beginning not even such a bad thing, but there’s no control over them from the IT department, a lot of different technologies and there are people within an organization that have the sole knowledge of the application. (Imagine them go and stop working, there goes your support). But killing those apps isn’t simple, because they got there for a reason in the first place…

The apps are there because the people responsible for them have the knowledge that, when they would ask the IT department for functionality, they would have to wait months, have enormous costs, or simply wouldn’t get what they need. So they train ‘one of their own’ to do the job. A proliferation (is this the right word?) of applications is the outcome.

Now you see, just implementing APEX is not the solution to this problem, there’s a lot more to it. Oracle Application Express is a RAD tool, now we just need a RAD-able method for our project management. Or Agile. Technology in itself is rarely the solution to these kinds of organizational problems and challenges. The way an IT department works is the problem and no technology will be able to change that. APEX can facilitate this kind of change, but you still need to work on the approach to IT projects itself.

And when we have done this, a RAD tool like APEX in combination with an Agile approach and mindset, we can finally actually work together with the business on solutions and functionality they need, within a clear set of time and therefore developing the stuff they need. Only then there will be no more need for ‘self-help’ from non-IT departments in the application field.

Last time, I wrote about Software Development, done Sustainable. How to do this and where my thoughts go when looking on the topic. In this post an example. How does Oracle Application Express, APEX, help you to create a Sustainable Software Environment.

Two elements are to be considered. One is the, absolute necessary, runtime footprint. The other, at least just as important, is the development in APEX itself. As we noticed in the last post Sustainable Software Development is creating a solution that lasts, without stressing the elements of environment, resources and people.

During Runtime, in order to lower the complete energy footprint of the solution, we need to take a look inside Oracle APEX. The simplicity of the architecture of APEX, learns us that well working customized office applications don’t need to run on lot’s of designated servers. A simple database server is sufficient to serve an entire organization.

When we run the APEX applications on virtualized environment, or even in the cloud (like Amazon’s EC2), it’s even quite simple to manage the server’s resources. In other words: only run when you actually need it. Lot’s of energy is spilled running servers that don’t do anything.

During development we actually design and implement the solution. Using APEX, together with an Agile Approach, we can develop smart functionality in a short amount of time. These solutions are also very sustainable. APEX is completely based on the Oracle Database and PL/SQL, which both will still be here for quite some time.

Remote Development in APEX, which is done completely browser based, is another part that gives sustainability a chance. Developers are not bound to one location, therefore they don’t have to travel distances in order to develop, or to make a change in the features of the application. There aren’t a lot of development environments that offer the same possibilities, and therefore this is a major advantage of Oracle’s Application Express.

Possible the main point is recycling. Within APEX we have the possibility to re-use elements of our application within and in other applications. This means that we don’t have to code everything over and over again. Therefore we have the possibility to implement variations of functionality fast. With the plugins offered to us in APEX 4.0 we will have even more possibilities to re-use code and functionality.

Oracle APEX offers us the possibilities to create a Sustainable Software environment. Both in Runtime as during the development of functionality. Short, yet effective projects can be done with this tool, using an Agile approach.

There has been a lot to do about the Oracle acquisition of Sun Microsystems. I’ve found it an appealing time and last weeks announcements have been great. It’s all about innovation and more and more research and development. Oracle, or at least it seams that way, really is into it for the win.

One great example is the future of the OpenOffice.org Suite. Oracle now has a fully fledged office suite in hand that makes them an even bigger competitor for Microsoft. To say that they now have their missiles aimed at the software giant is a bit too much in my opinion, but for the enterprise solutions part it certainly makes a point.

With ‘Oracle Cloud Office’ Oracle will develop a complete office suite, based on open standards, that will be tightly integrated with other Oracle parts of their enormous stack, Mainly integration with Oracle’s BI Suite, OBIEE, and WebCentre Suite will mean some great changes. Now user interaction will be even better. Especially the potential with integration, somewhat like the integration of Microsoft Office and SharePoint Server, will set the lines.

The new, soon to be expected if we might want to believe the rumors, Oracle Cloud Office Suite, there will be a complete orifice suite that works on the desktop (all operating systems as OpenOffice does now), the web (I hope it will work as great as Google Apps) and mobile (let’s hope for an iPad application). This means it will become the first office suite that will work on every platform. Especially, with the integration of WebCentre, with all your content on every platform.

When there will be large choice in connectors and extensions available for the new Office Suite, which can be developed in Oracle Jdeveloper, the horizon stretches further and further. What can you all do when we have connectors to the Oracle Database, SOA integration, tightened integration with Oracle BI and BI Publisher? What to think of a complete mashup with an Office Suite and Oracle Application Express? Wow, the thoughts and possibilities are endless.

It is confirmed; both Philips and Ricoh will present during our APEX and Productivity knowledge session on Thursday December 10th. They will show off what types of applications they build with Oracle Application Express using the Vision, Knowledge and Result approach and in what way this was achieved. CreativITy in real live.

During this knowledge session (register before it’s too late, there are still some seats available) Whitehorses, Philips and Ricoh will show, at the hand of two real projects we have done in the last few months, how to create something that seems complex and hard in a very short amount of time. Both projects are steered on a clear vision and with a defined deadline on delivery.

My colleagues and I will then show how this is done in APEX itself. What are the basics you will need to understand and how can you develop and deliver fast. Modular design and User Interface tweaking are some of the keywords we will use in this session. For both APEX developers who want to do more with their knowledge and managers who are looking for a fast solution to a seamlessly impossible problem this will be a useful and interesting session.

Finally a session on APEX and productivity with real customers and live situations!